Big Block Beauty Color Option

Cute Cowboy Pillow
What cowboy or cowgirl wouldn’t like quilt tester Laura Boehnke’s western-theme version of “Big-Block Beauty”? The star, plaid, and bandana prints she used are from the Spirit of the West collection by Maywood Studio.

To make a 25”-square floor pillow, add sashing to one block, surround it with a 2”-wide-finished border, and sew on a backing. Stuff with fiberfill or insert a Euro-size pillow form.

Asian Persuasion Color Option

Tropical Party
Neon colors in bold, leafy prints with a Haitian influence make this hot version by quilt tester Laura Boehnke anything but ordinary. She kicked it up a notch with the Mambo collection by Rosemarie Lavin for Windham Fabrics.

“I wanted to show how simple it is to completely change the texture, tone and style of a quilt by just choosing different fabrics,” Laura says. “This pattern’s big blocks can easily adapt to lots of different color palettes.”

Dash of Summer

Dash of Summer Color Option

Dash of Pink
Using Judie Rothermel’s Charleston IV 1850–1865 collection from Marcus Fabrics, quilt tester Laura Boehnke created a quilt in classic pinks and browns that hearkens back to Civil War days.

“Churn Dash is such a familiar early quilting pattern,” says Laura, “I wanted to reproduce it in vintage colors reminiscent of the quilts our great-great grandmothers might have made.”

“I wanted to come up with a hearthside look that was a bit more subdued,” she says, “so I framed the quilt with a brown outer border, used darker green plaids to dim the lights in the windows, and chose strips with less contrast for the Log Cabin blocks.”